Professor Bernard Oxman Sworn in as Judge Ad Hoc of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and Elected to the Institut de Droit International

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Posted: September 06, 2011

Law of the Sea expert Professor Bernard H. Oxman was sworn in on Monday as judge ad hoc of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany. Two days earlier, he was elected to the prestigious Institut de Droit International at its meeting in Rhodes, Greece.

Chosen by Myanmar to serve as judge ad hoc, Professor Oxman will remain in Hamburg for the tribunal's public hearings in a dispute concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the Bay of Bengal. The hearings begin on Thursday and continue through September 24, after which Professor Oxman will participate in the tribunal's deliberations on the case in the coming months. A judgment in the case is expected to be delivered early next year.

This is the second time that Professor Oxman has been appointed judge ad hoc at the tribunal, and he is the only American to have served in that capacity on both the tribunal and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

The Institut de Droit International was established in 1873 in Ghent, Belgium, and is one of the few organizations to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. It typically meets every two years to consider studies prepared between sessions by various committees and make recommendations that have had significant influence on the development of international law. The members and associate members are generally limited to no more than 132, drawn from among leading experts in international law. Among them is Judge Hugo Caminos, who has been a visiting professor at Miami Law for many years.

Professor Oxman is the Richard A. Hausler Professor of Law at Miami Law. He joined the faculty in 1977, and regularly teaches conflict of laws, international law, law of the sea, and torts. He also directs the law school's masters program in ocean and coastal law. The university has twice recognized his accomplishments, first with the Provost's award for scholarly activity, and more recently with the Faculty Senate's Distinguished Faculty Scholar award.

Before coming to Miami, Professor Oxman served on active duty in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Navy, earning the Navy Commendation Medal, and then as Assistant Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he represented the United States in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.